Free software video streaming: HUBAngl powered LibrePlanet 2017

During LibrePlanet 2016, the ABYSS package was used to livestream
sessions from the conference. This year, at LibrePlanet 2017, we
used a new version of this free package...with a new name.

This guest post from David Testé discusses the video streaming
package he debuted at LibrePlanet 2016, while a Free Software
Foundation (FSF) intern. The new version was deployed at
LibrePlanet 2017.

HUBAngl welcome screen

During LibrePlanet 2016, the ABYSS package was used to livestream
sessions from the conference. This year, at LibrePlanet 2017, we
used a new version of this free package...with a new name. It's now
called HUBAngl, which stands for HUBAngl Uses Broadcaster Angle. This
name sticks with the idea of depth: the HUmpBack Anglerfish lives
in the abyss.

As I mentioned, HUBAngl was used for LibrePlanet 2017,
successfully streaming and recording around 50 sessions. Those
sessions are already available on the LibrePlanet's GNU
MediaGoblin instance. HUBAngl behaved well despite its
experimental state -- we used the v0.1 release for the event.

Using HUBAngl

Wanna give HUBAngl a try? Grab a camera and/or a microphone and then
clone the project repository. Follow the very straightforward
instructions to start a session. That's all. Just remember that
HUBAngl is a streaming client: if you want to stream a session you
must direct your feed(s) to an Icecast server instance. Since the
package is in experimental state, if you encounter any problem or
have bugs when running HUBAngl, please open an issue on the project
repository, or even better make a pull request to fix the problem,
that's very helpful.

The HUBAngl interface

Next features/releases

Although HUBAngl v0.1 is an improvement on ABYSS, some key components
and features are missing. Nevertheless, a bunch of them should be
implemented in forthcoming releases, like the following:

Streaming placeholder screen: useful when you want to warn viewers
through the video player (instead of displaying a black screen) about
an upcoming session. v0.2 release

Screencast from a selected screen: will allow you to display a
screen feed (for instance, this could be used to display slides from a
presentation). v0.3 release

JACK audio support: currently only PulseAudio server is supported.

Audio input mixer and equalizer: will allow multi-source audio
input to be streamed.

Live subtitles: will allow you to display subtitles during a
streaming session.

Monitoring mode: will allow a control-room HUBAngl instance to do
most of the heavy lifting for the configuration phase and then the
data processing.

Control-room mode: will allow you to have control over a pool of
monitoring HUBAngl instances.

Many more...

If you have any ideas about features to implement into HUBAngl, just
ask for it by opening an issue on the project repository.

LibrePlanet 2018

Since day one, the FSF and especially its tech team, put trust in this
project by running it for the LibrePlanet conference. Each time, it
has been a big deal for me, because this is a great proving ground for
HUBAngl (4 instances running in parallel for a whole
weekend). LibrePlanet 2018 will again be the HUBAngl's real-life
proving ground, and I'll be there in person to ensure everything works
as planned.

Thanks to the FSF for all their hard work to make LibrePlanet
possible. Special thanks to Andrew Engelbrecht and Ruben Rodriguez for
their feedback and their help during the development of HUBAngl:
without them the package wouldn't have been ready for LibrePlanet
2017.

If you want to contribute to the project or if you just want to talk
about HUBAngl send me an email soonum[at]gnu.org. All contributions
are welcome.

If you live in Paris and want to grab a drink while discussing HUBAngl
(or anything else), shoot me an email. In any case, see you in Boston
at LibrePlanet 2018.

Happy (deep-sea) diving!

David received travel assistance from the LibrePlanet 2017 scholarship
fund -- consider contributing to the fund for LibrePlanet 2018
today. You will help more people afford to attend this annual free
software conference. Learn more about FSF internships here.